Terrifying Situations - where you thought your number was up
Discussion
As I’m relatively new here in the Lounge and I apologise if this has been done before?
My reminiscing in the ‘crazy ex thread’ reminded me of something else that happened to me later that year following my broken shoulder incident.
About six months after the break up, I was out walking my dog one evening on a footpath through fields.
I was approached by a large herd of cows, I really thought nothing of it. I’ve lived in the countryside all my life and knew they (cows) were harmless.
Trouble was I’d been used to walking near dairy cows, and these were Limousin - beef cows.
I honestly thought all cows were the same.
Wrong.
Within no time I’d quickly been circled by the herd, I shouted loudly at them to “do one”.
It had no effect at all except made them extremely aggressive. The next thing I know I’m running as fast as I can with my dog on the lead beside me and I was completely overwhelmed and trampled beneath the herd.
It was literally terrifying. I was briefly knocked out but soon came round. A bloke who was walking in the opposite direction came to my rescue and shouted them off.
I’d obviously lost grip of my dog lead in the melee but my beloved Boxer soon came running back.
This was the summer of 2007 where it had literally rained for months on end, even with a weight of a herd of cows on top of me I’d just sunk in the ground. It probably saved my life.
I was completely covered from head to toe in s
t, battered and very bruised.
Never did I think a dog walk could result in something so utterly scary.
2007 was definitely a year of living dangerously for myself, I wondered if others had experiences where they thought they were a worm food?
My reminiscing in the ‘crazy ex thread’ reminded me of something else that happened to me later that year following my broken shoulder incident.
About six months after the break up, I was out walking my dog one evening on a footpath through fields.
I was approached by a large herd of cows, I really thought nothing of it. I’ve lived in the countryside all my life and knew they (cows) were harmless.
Trouble was I’d been used to walking near dairy cows, and these were Limousin - beef cows.
I honestly thought all cows were the same.
Wrong.
Within no time I’d quickly been circled by the herd, I shouted loudly at them to “do one”.
It had no effect at all except made them extremely aggressive. The next thing I know I’m running as fast as I can with my dog on the lead beside me and I was completely overwhelmed and trampled beneath the herd.
It was literally terrifying. I was briefly knocked out but soon came round. A bloke who was walking in the opposite direction came to my rescue and shouted them off.
I’d obviously lost grip of my dog lead in the melee but my beloved Boxer soon came running back.
This was the summer of 2007 where it had literally rained for months on end, even with a weight of a herd of cows on top of me I’d just sunk in the ground. It probably saved my life.
I was completely covered from head to toe in s
t, battered and very bruised.Never did I think a dog walk could result in something so utterly scary.
2007 was definitely a year of living dangerously for myself, I wondered if others had experiences where they thought they were a worm food?
Went to overtake on a dual carriageway, pouring rain, put my foot down & the back stepped out at around 80mph and the car aquaplaned, some how it straightened up & I survived. A combination of the electronics and grip coming back with a huge slice of luck…..I’ve taken it very easy in the rain since.
In 2010 I decided that I was sick of working in an office and went to work at my ex-wife's place as a same day courier
Working every hour of the day doing some proper silly hours
Had a timed drop in Birmingham at 1am. End of November during a really cold snap
On the way back was on the M6 around 3.30am. Had just stopped for a coffee to keep myself going. Just steadily making my way on the inside lane at 70mph
All of a sudden a big bang and I was confronted by an airbag and a set of truck lights - I'd drifted off and slowly cruised up and underneath an artic. Went right under to the point it bent the windscreen pillars and roof. Van was a write off.
Walked away without a scratch. 2 weeks later the ex-wife ran off with one of the other drivers so I quit and went back to working in an office
Working every hour of the day doing some proper silly hours
Had a timed drop in Birmingham at 1am. End of November during a really cold snap
On the way back was on the M6 around 3.30am. Had just stopped for a coffee to keep myself going. Just steadily making my way on the inside lane at 70mph
All of a sudden a big bang and I was confronted by an airbag and a set of truck lights - I'd drifted off and slowly cruised up and underneath an artic. Went right under to the point it bent the windscreen pillars and roof. Van was a write off.
Walked away without a scratch. 2 weeks later the ex-wife ran off with one of the other drivers so I quit and went back to working in an office
I can relate Jim, exactly the same thing happened to me. I wasn't even aware that people had died from this until it nearly happened to me. I also grew up in the country and had walked through dairy farm cows many times. I had no idea beef cows act like that.
It started off, they were all walking in a line behind me, I assumed just curious. The dog was on the lead.
Then one of them started doing a kind of bucking bronco type move. That set off all of them and they were going for us. I let the dog lead go as I figured he was better off making his own way across.
I was very lucky to get to the fence and jump it like a rodeo clown. I have never ran so fast in my life, the sound of the hooves on the ground chasing you is something else. I certainly wouldn;t do it again, I am carrying some lock down weight and probably couldnt run so fast
I had a big steak for dinner that night, just because!
It started off, they were all walking in a line behind me, I assumed just curious. The dog was on the lead.
Then one of them started doing a kind of bucking bronco type move. That set off all of them and they were going for us. I let the dog lead go as I figured he was better off making his own way across.
I was very lucky to get to the fence and jump it like a rodeo clown. I have never ran so fast in my life, the sound of the hooves on the ground chasing you is something else. I certainly wouldn;t do it again, I am carrying some lock down weight and probably couldnt run so fast
I had a big steak for dinner that night, just because!
Way back in the 70's a work colleague was giving me a lift home on a dark, wet winters night.
We came round a walled bend off a large roundabout and just as we straightened up there was a terrific explosion of glass, the windscreen disappeared, most of it ending up inside the car covering both of us head to foot.
A couple of workmen came running over, to find that the hook on the end of the jib of the crane they were swinging round on the side of the road had swung through the windscreen between us, smashing into the roof of the car leaving a massive dent, then swung back out between us as the car continued to move forward and bounced along the outside of the roof as we came to an abrupt stop underneath it.
A couple of inches either way and that would have been lights out for one of us.
We came round a walled bend off a large roundabout and just as we straightened up there was a terrific explosion of glass, the windscreen disappeared, most of it ending up inside the car covering both of us head to foot.
A couple of workmen came running over, to find that the hook on the end of the jib of the crane they were swinging round on the side of the road had swung through the windscreen between us, smashing into the roof of the car leaving a massive dent, then swung back out between us as the car continued to move forward and bounced along the outside of the roof as we came to an abrupt stop underneath it.
A couple of inches either way and that would have been lights out for one of us.
I’ve seen that bucking bronco type behaviour before! A field I walk the dog is nearly always full of sheep or empty. Start of the year there were cows in it and as we were walking along I became aware of the herd suddenly showing an interest. They began gathering ahead of us or following us along from their side of the fence when suddenly two or three of them started randomly jumping and kicking out.
I was shocked at just how high they could jump and sensed something was quite right so ushered the dog towards the riverbank on opposite side of path instead. I wouldn’t have thought anything of this normally except last year there were a handful of reports of cow-on-people attacks in the Edinburgh area.
I was shocked at just how high they could jump and sensed something was quite right so ushered the dog towards the riverbank on opposite side of path instead. I wouldn’t have thought anything of this normally except last year there were a handful of reports of cow-on-people attacks in the Edinburgh area.
bobtail4x4 said:
it was the dog they were intersted in not you
Not necessarily, I've had this happen a few years ago on footpath across a field with some cattle in it. One of them went for me, I only just made it through the kissing gate. Doubly worrying as this one wasn't polled.I used to work with cattle when I was younger, and only an idiot underestimates them, they can do you a lot of damage without too much effort.
As to the OP, most of mine have been motorcycle related, most recently rounding a corner just outside my village and finding an HGV taking up almost all of my side of the road, had to use the famed swerve manoeuvre which got me just down the bike shaped gap remaining.
Newarch said:
bobtail4x4 said:
it was the dog they were intersted in not you
As to the OP, most of mine have been motorcycle related, most recently rounding a corner just outside my village and finding an HGV taking up almost all of my side of the road, had to use the famed swerve manoeuvre which got me just down the bike shaped gap remaining.Many years ago, when the missus was still alive and the kids were young, we went to Egypt for a week - I decided that I wanted to go for a dive, so booked up, did a little refresher in the morning as a) I hadn’t done it for a while and b) I was qualified but inexperienced.
Morning dive was fine - swapped tanks at lunch and went out again in the afternoon.
Didn’t go too deep, probably 20m or just over (yeah I know it should be 18m on an OW cert).
On the ascent, probably only about 10m down, my buddy (the instructor, as I was on my own on the day) was about 5m in front of me when my reg stopped working. Being inexperienced, I panicked and instead of swapping to the octopus, I looked up and thought ‘I can make that’, so started finning straight up. I remembered to breathe out on the way up (such an unnatural feeling!) and broke the surface, gasping for air.
Buddy turned up a minute or two later, asking why I had come up and why I didn’t tap my tank to alert him!
Checked the reg at the surface and it seemed fine, so we went down a few metres again but it stopped working again.
Got back to the hotel and thought about what had happened. Never dived since.
Morning dive was fine - swapped tanks at lunch and went out again in the afternoon.
Didn’t go too deep, probably 20m or just over (yeah I know it should be 18m on an OW cert).
On the ascent, probably only about 10m down, my buddy (the instructor, as I was on my own on the day) was about 5m in front of me when my reg stopped working. Being inexperienced, I panicked and instead of swapping to the octopus, I looked up and thought ‘I can make that’, so started finning straight up. I remembered to breathe out on the way up (such an unnatural feeling!) and broke the surface, gasping for air.
Buddy turned up a minute or two later, asking why I had come up and why I didn’t tap my tank to alert him!
Checked the reg at the surface and it seemed fine, so we went down a few metres again but it stopped working again.
Got back to the hotel and thought about what had happened. Never dived since.
Travelling on the M1 on a Honda 4, around 85-90 mph, the bars starting shaking and then banging lock stop to lock stop, it threw me off the bike and I saw it doing cartwheels, I span around on my back, no idea how I managed to avoid the cars and trucks.
One man stopped to help, met him years later and we both recognised each other, he had become CEO of Jet2 airways.
One man stopped to help, met him years later and we both recognised each other, he had become CEO of Jet2 airways.
About 8 years ago now I was lazing about in the sea in Spain, the family were on the beach. I must have shut my eyes and zoned out for a bit, when I bothered to look round I was quite far out. I could see people in the sea but too far away to hear or notice me.
Not overly concerned I started to swim back, but there was something stopping me making any progress. I guess some under water current or something, for a few seconds I started to panic a bit, getting out of breath and thrown about by the sea. After trying to compose myself a bit I decided to swim horizontally to try and get round whatever the issue was. It took me about 30 minutes to get back to shore and I was knackered. Those few seconds where I thought I was going to drown were not ideal though.
Not overly concerned I started to swim back, but there was something stopping me making any progress. I guess some under water current or something, for a few seconds I started to panic a bit, getting out of breath and thrown about by the sea. After trying to compose myself a bit I decided to swim horizontally to try and get round whatever the issue was. It took me about 30 minutes to get back to shore and I was knackered. Those few seconds where I thought I was going to drown were not ideal though.
A couple of occasions when I thought I'd had my chips, both happened at work....
The first one happened not long after I started my footplate career on the railway, in early 1983, I've posted the same tale before elsewhere on PH but here goes. I was booked with an old hand driver to take some wagons from Wembley Yard to Bletchley, we set off along the slow line and for some reason we were stopped at a signal in Tring cutting, in those days it was customary for the secondman / driver's assistant to get down from the cab and contact the signaller using the lineside phone. This I duly did, bearing in mind it was a cold and very windy February day I could barely hear what the signalman was saying so I crouched down and covered my other ear to try and block out the sound of the wind, as I did this I turned by back towards the adjacent fast line, almost leaning over it without realising and didn't hear the approaching London bound express bearing down on me, it was only the sound of my driver screaming at me from his cab window and blowing the horn that stopped me falling any further backwards and made me move out of the way, otherwise I'd have been mincemeat.
The second happened much later, long after I'd passed out as a driver. Fast forward to 2006 and I'm working a train of empty stone wagons up the Leicester - Burton line approaching Kirby Muxloe where there is a deep cutting and a couple of overbridges straddling the line. It's a notoriously bad area for mischief so I was already a little wary. Approaching the second bridge at about 40mph I saw two young lads looking down at me innocently enough, when one of them threw a short section of scaffolding pole over the parapet at just the right angle to hit the front of the loco end on. My immediate reaction was to just duck, I didn't even have time to hit the emergency brake plunger, as I ducked the pole came through the co driver's windscreen but swung round hitting the control desk just a few inches to my right, if I'd stayed upright it wouldn't caught the back of my head and I wouldn't be sitting here typing this out. I managed to compose myself briefly and brought the train to a stand shaking like a leaf, when I rang the signalman I probably sounded like I was talking gibberish as I was shaking so much.
I've had several near misses with trespassers and objects left on the line etc, but the two instances above have always stayed with me.
The first one happened not long after I started my footplate career on the railway, in early 1983, I've posted the same tale before elsewhere on PH but here goes. I was booked with an old hand driver to take some wagons from Wembley Yard to Bletchley, we set off along the slow line and for some reason we were stopped at a signal in Tring cutting, in those days it was customary for the secondman / driver's assistant to get down from the cab and contact the signaller using the lineside phone. This I duly did, bearing in mind it was a cold and very windy February day I could barely hear what the signalman was saying so I crouched down and covered my other ear to try and block out the sound of the wind, as I did this I turned by back towards the adjacent fast line, almost leaning over it without realising and didn't hear the approaching London bound express bearing down on me, it was only the sound of my driver screaming at me from his cab window and blowing the horn that stopped me falling any further backwards and made me move out of the way, otherwise I'd have been mincemeat.
The second happened much later, long after I'd passed out as a driver. Fast forward to 2006 and I'm working a train of empty stone wagons up the Leicester - Burton line approaching Kirby Muxloe where there is a deep cutting and a couple of overbridges straddling the line. It's a notoriously bad area for mischief so I was already a little wary. Approaching the second bridge at about 40mph I saw two young lads looking down at me innocently enough, when one of them threw a short section of scaffolding pole over the parapet at just the right angle to hit the front of the loco end on. My immediate reaction was to just duck, I didn't even have time to hit the emergency brake plunger, as I ducked the pole came through the co driver's windscreen but swung round hitting the control desk just a few inches to my right, if I'd stayed upright it wouldn't caught the back of my head and I wouldn't be sitting here typing this out. I managed to compose myself briefly and brought the train to a stand shaking like a leaf, when I rang the signalman I probably sounded like I was talking gibberish as I was shaking so much.
I've had several near misses with trespassers and objects left on the line etc, but the two instances above have always stayed with me.
HTP99 said:
Cows scare the crap out of me, hate them!!
Me too, It's dairy farms all around here and I will not go into a field where there's cows after taking Oscar when he was a pup into a field with cows a long way away, they all came running over and surrounded us. There was a 5 bar gate that Oscar got dumped over followed by me. Hate the bloody things, 100's of kilos of muscle with a brain the size of a walnut.Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff